Daniel Rodriguez

so its been a weird few weeks for me on the radio. been parking on 40m most evenings after dinner just spinning the dial and honestly its either dead quiet or theres some massive pileup halfway across the band that i cant even get close to. nothing in between. had a nice qso with a guy in nebraska last tuesday i think, real relaxed ragchew, talked about antennas for like 45 minutes which was fun. but other than that its just been kind of blah. not complaining exactly just feels like the bands have been weird lately. maybe its just me or my location, im out in the suburbs so there's a fair amount of rfi to deal with depending on the time of night. anyway just curious if anyone else is noticing anything or if ive just been unlucky with timing

JS8Call is kind of a niche within a niche at this point. the user base is real but its nothing like FT8 which has basically eaten the digital world. i check 7.078 and also 14.078 on 20m depending on time of day, and 20m tends to have more activity during daylight hours at least here in the midwest. 25w should be fine honestly, JS8Call wasnt really designed around running barefoot QRP into a dummy load but 25w into a decent antenna is plenty. the issue is more just that you might be calling CQ and nobody happens to be watching at that moment. i use it mostly for the store and forward stuff and the heartbeat beacons, its kind of interesting from an experimental standpoint. if you want actual chats though PSK31 on 14.070ish still has people on it, surprisingly. slower pace but the people there actually want to talk.

this sounds familiar actually, i had almost the exact same thing happening when i first set up vara hf. turned out my USB cable was garbage — was getting tiny ground loop artifacts that you could barely see on the waterfall but they were enough to corrupt the data stream mid-transfer. swapped to a shielded cable with ferrites on both ends and it mostly went away. also check your windows sound settings, make sure nothing else is grabbing the audio device. had a discord notification sound literally break a session once because windows decided to route it through the same device. exclusive mode in the sound control panel helped. and if you're on a laptop check if any power saving stuff is throttling the USB ports, that was another one that bit me. the ALC thing you mentioned — yeah keep it barely moving, you're on the right track there. vara hf is pretty sensitive to overdrive and the artifacts it causes are not always obvious on the signal meter but they kill the protocol.

nah man thats literally what i do on slow nights. sometimes i dont even transmit, just tune around and see whats happening. 40m at night is its own thing, you never know whos gonna pop up. had a guy from argentina come back to me last week when i wasnt even trying to work DX, just called CQ out of habit.

im kind of in the same boat as you, working toward DXCC right now at about 87 confirmed and WAS is definitely my next target too. one thing i read somewhere is that for WAS you need the contacts to be on the same band or you can do mixed, there's different endorsements for different bands. so if you ever want a 40m WAS or whatever you'd track those separately. just something to be aware of so you maybe log which band youre working as you go, though i guess LoTW handles that anyway

I was in the exact same spot like 8 months ago lol. ended up getting a baofeng bf-f8hp which is a step up from the uv-5r, little more power and the build feels slightly better. its been fine for what i do which is basically the same as what you described. no complaints honestly one thing nobody told me that i wish they had — get a better antenna. the rubber duck that comes on these cheap radios is pretty mediocre and swapping it for a nagoya na-771 or something like that makes a real difference on weaker repeaters. costs like 12 bucks and it was probably the best upgrade i did

the solar thing is a real gotcha and almost everyone figures that out the hard way. i'd look at a folding 50-100w panel, something that can pair with a small charge controller and feed right into that LiFePO4. Bioenno actually sells chargers that play nice with their batteries and some of the folding Jackery-style panels will run them fine too. for a 20ah battery you dont need anything massive, a sunny afternoon should get you most of the way back up. the adapter situation is honestly just worth throwing a little ziplock bag of miscellaneous PL/BNC/SMA adapters in the case. they weigh nothing and it has saved me more than once when i showed up somewhere expecting one thing and found another. i think i grabbed a mixed pack off Amazon for like eight bucks years ago and it's lived in my kit ever since. one thing i'd add that nobody seems to mention until you actually need it -- some kind of lighting. even a small headlamp in the case because if you're operating at night or in a shelter situation staring at radio controls in the dark is miserable. sounds obvious but it was not in my first kit either.

WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 is honestly fine for rural areas but yeah in a dense metro it can get noisy. the thing people dont always explain is that WIDE1-1 is specifically meant to hit fill-in digis, stuff like home stations running igates with digi enabled, and then WIDE2-2 hops the backbone digis. in a city where you've got tons of backbone coverage already you could probably just run WIDE2-1 or even no path at all near an igate and your packets will still get to the internet just fine. for your mixed commute situation a lot of people just leave it at WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 as a compromise. you lose a little rural coverage on the back end but you're not slamming the network in the city. beacon rate is also important though — 1 minute intervals while parked is totally unnecessary, smart beaconing if your radio supports it is way better because it ramps up when you're turning corners and slows down when you're on a straight highway. the TM-D710 does have smart beaconing in the menu if you haven't found it yet

yeah same thing happened to me when i first started checking into nets. i was so nervous i checked in during the preamble before net control even asked for check-ins lol. the net control just kind of ignored it and started over and i wanted to disappear. i think the main thing is just keep showing up, after a few weeks you get a feel for how that specific net runs because they all have their own little rhythms and quirks. some net controls are really formal and some are pretty laid back about it. also if its a small local net you could probably just reach out to the net manager and ask, in my experience those folks love talking about their nets and are happy to walk new people through the procedure before the session starts.

congrats on the first kit build, rewinding toroids is basically a rite of passage at this point lol. the noise floor thing is something you kind of learn to work around over time honestly. a lot of it is antenna placement — even moving your wire a few feet can make a surprising difference, especially if theres any power lines or parking lot lights nearby. i find that getting the feedpoint up as high as possible and keeping the coax or feedline away from yourself and the radio helps a fair bit too. the other thing that helped me a ton was slowing down on cw and not trying to copy everything at once. when a signal is borderline readable your brain can fill in a lot of gaps if youre not panicking about it. the KX2's filters are actually pretty decent for a rig that small so you probably have more tools there than you realize, try narrowing the bandwidth down to like 200hz when things get crowded and see if that clears it up some. ohio to texas on 5w is a solid first outing. 40m can be finicky but when its good its really good for that kind of distance.

the RFI from inverter generators is almost always a grounding issue in my experience. what i do is run a separate ground rod right at the generator and bond the frame with a short piece of #10 wire, then make sure the radio end is also grounded independently. the two grounds kind of fight each other in a good way and kill most of the common mode noise. also a common mode choke on the power lead from the generator helps a lot — i wound about 8 turns of the extension cord through a mix31 toroid and that cleaned things up considerably on 40 and 80. on the power question i'd run the battery as primary and keep the generator staged but not running. you burn less fuel, its quieter for voice comms, and the bioenno at 100ah will carry you through most of the day at reasonable power levels. just make sure you have a way to top off the battery from the generator if you need to — a decent dc-dc charger or even just a battery tender running off the ac output. that way if the battery drops below like 20% you spin up the generator and recover while still operating. EFHW over the buddipole for a fixed site exercise, no question. takes longer to set up but performance difference is noticeable especially on 40m.

the 30 day filing window thing is definitely still how it works, at least last time i checked which was maybe a year ago so someone correct me if thats changed. basically if more than one person applies for the same call during that window they do a random selection — so its not strictly first come first served in the traditional sense. its more like everyone who files in that window gets thrown in a hat. as for license class, it absolutely matters for certain calls. 1x2 and 2x1 calls are restricted to extra class, so you wont even be able to apply for those as a general. 1x3 and 2x2 calls are open to general and above i believe. so youre on the right track already looking at 1x3. just pick a few you like and check them on the AE7Q vanity HF page, that site is way easier to navigate than ULS and shows you application history and everything. good luck, the process isnt too painful once you figure out the FCC form 605. just double check everything before you submit because mistakes can delay things quite a bit

so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, not just a drill. local flooding knocked out some cell infrastructure and the county EOC called in our ARES group to handle welfare traffic and coordinate with Red Cross shelters. ive been a member for about 8 months and done maybe 4 or 5 exercises but this was the first time it was actually real and i gotta say it felt completely different. the training def helped but there were still moments where i wasnt sure what net control wanted or if i should be initiating contact or waiting. we were running on the county repeater for most of it with a backup simplex freq that we had pre-coordinated. my HT held up fine but i noticed my audio was apparently a little rough at one point, probably my hand placement on the mic. someone corrected me on the air which was a little embarrassing but honestly i needed to hear it. anyway just wanted to share. if anyone else is thinking about getting more involved with ARES or RACES i'd say just do it, the training nets are worth it even when they feel repetitive. curious if others have had similar first activation experiences or if i'm the only one who felt kind of lost in the moment even with training behind them.

so ive been studying for like two months and passed my technician exam last thursday and today i finally worked up the nerve to actually key up on the local 2m repeater and someone actually came back to me which i was not expecting at all honestly i kind of froze for a second and forgot what to say the guy was super patient though and we chatted for maybe 10 minutes about nothing really, he asked where i was located and what radio i was using and told me a little about the club they have on thursdays. im using a baofeng uv-5r i know i know everyone has opinions about those but it got me on the air so whatever anyway just wanted to share because i feel like i actually did the thing finally. been reading forums and watching youtube for months and it feels different when theres a real person on the other end

yeah Technician is definitely where you want to start, thats the entry level license and it opens up VHF/UHF which is plenty to get going with. the question pool is public — the exact questions that show up on the test are all available ahead of time, so theres really no excuse to fail if you put in even a little time studying. hamstudyDOTorg is honestly the best free resource out there, just grind the practice tests and pay attention to the ones you keep getting wrong. most people say like 2-3 weeks of casual studying is enough, maybe longer if you want to really understand the theory behind it instead of just memorizing. the ARRL also has a license manual book which is decent if you like physical books but the website stuff is probably fine for most people. find a local club too, a lot of them host testing sessions and some even do free study nights which is pretty cool

so ive been on SSB for about two years now and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds bassy or muddy, like people say they can hear me fine but it doesnt sound crisp the way some of the guys on the band do. im running an IC-7300 into a stock mic and i know i know everyone says the stock mic is fine but i wonder if thats actually part of the problem here. i did mess around with the TX bandwidth a bit in the menu but honestly wasnt sure what i was doing. currently sitting at maybe 2.4kHz if i remember right. compression is on but i dont know what level is too much, right now its around 4 on the ALC. the room im in is pretty live acoustically, just a hardwood floor office with not much on the walls. could that be part of it too? i feel like i hear guys on the air that just sound punchy and clear and im not sure what combination of things gets you there. not looking to sound like a broadcast station just want to be readable and not have people asking me to repeat myself on pileups

i ran into this exact thing last year during CQWW. ended up with like three different log files and spent more time sorting it out than actually operating which was frustrating. what i've heard from a few people is that Log4OM 2 has better contest support than the original but i never really dug into it because by that point N1MM was already working and i didnt want to mess with it mid-contest weekend. one thing that did help me was just accepting that WSJT-X during a contest is kind of its own animal. i run it pointed at N1MM and then after the contest i do a careful ADIF merge. theres a thread somewhere on the Log4OM groups.io that goes into the duplicate handling in detail, might be worth a search over there because the guys who wrote the software actually respond which is nice.

so ive been doing single op for a few years now and my rates are decent, usually pulling 800-1000 QSOs in a 48 hour phone contest if condx cooperate but ive been reading about SO2R and honestly im not sure if the complexity is worth it for someone at my level. like yes i understand the basic concept, one radio running, one radio searching for mults or new guys to work, but the antenna isolation part is what keeps tripping me up in my head. right now i run an IC-7300 and i have an old FT-950 sitting on the shelf that i could press into service. the problem is my antennas are all on the same feedline selector and i only have a tribander and a 40m dipole. trying to transmit on two bands simultaneously with that setup seems like it would just be RF chaos. do people actually run SO2R with modest antenna setups or do you basically need a dedicated antenna for every band you want to operate on at once? also curious how folks handle the audio, does it just become second nature to monitor two radios or does it mess with your head after a few hours? not looking to win anything, just want to squeeze more rate out of the same operating time

field day is honestly the best place to start, full stop. most clubs run a station specifically so newer people can jump in and try it out, and theres usually someone sitting right next to you helping with the exchange and telling you what to say. the whole vibe is pretty relaxed compared to something like CQ WW which yeah, that one is intense. the exchange is simple too — you just send your operating class and your ARRL section, thats it. for CQ WW you only need to send a signal report and your CQ zone, so its also not complicated once you know what youre doing, but the pace can feel like drinking from a fire hose at first. what i usually tell people is just spend an hour or two listening during a big contest before you ever try to make a contact. tune around, get a feel for how the exchanges work, notice how the faster operators run stations. by the time you actually key up youll feel a lot more comfortable. also the ARRL has free logging software called N1MM+ that basically walks you through the exchange format for each contest which helps a ton. SOTA is its own thing yeah — its more about activating summits and getting contacts to count for the program, not really head to head competition. still really fun though if you like portable ops.

yeah the message handling thing is really common, almost every group I've seen run their first real sim runs into exactly that. people practice the radio part at home but nobody practices sitting at a table filling out a 213 while someone's talking to them and there's noise everywhere. it's a completely different skill. what helped our group a lot was doing a tabletop first — no radios at all, just people sitting around passing paper messages and filling out forms. sounds boring but it exposed so many gaps before we ever keyed up. once they've done the paperwork part in a low-stress environment they handle it much better when the radios are involved too. as for templates, ARRL has some simplified versions but honestly I'd check with your section's ARES EC because a lot of regions have their own modified forms that local served agencies actually prefer. the national standard stuff is fine but some EOCs have their own workflows and its worth matching what they actually use day to day. and yeah the backup person thing — we literally have a written roster now with primary and alternate for every single function. learned that the hard way during a real activation not even an exercise, lost our net control guy to a medical issue partway through and it was not a fun scramble.

so we have this county-level ARES exercise coming up in about 3 weeks and im trying to nail down our power situation before then. last time we did one of these i brought my honda eu2200i and it worked fine but we had a couple other operators running off it too and i ended up with some pretty bad RFI on 40m that i never fully tracked down. wasnt terrible but enough to be annoying on SSB. this time im thinking about setting up a bit more carefully. my main rig will be the IC-7300 and we'll probably run a linked dipole or maybe just an EFHW with a 9:1 unun depending on where we end up setting up. the site they picked is kind of a sloped field behind the county EOC so i should have decent options for antenna orientation. my question is mainly about the generator noise — do people usually run a separate filtered power strip or something between the eu2200i and the radio, or is the inverter output on those hondas clean enough that its not worth worrying about? i also have a 100ah LiFePO4 battery i could use and just keep the generator for charging duty only but im not sure if that adds a whole other layer of complexity with the charging current causing noise too. anyone run a similar setup?

so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i cant decide. currently running a dipole for 40m, its an inverted V hung from a 35ft pushup mast, feedpoint probably at 30 feet or so, legs going down at maybe 45 degrees. works okay but ive always felt like im getting stomped on by the verticals when i try to work dx and yeah i know dipoles arent supposed to be great for low angle radiation but mine seems worse than expected. the thing is i have a decent sized backyard and i could put up a quarter wave vertical with a decent radial field, maybe 20-30 radials laid on the ground. or i could just raise the dipole higher if i can borrow a taller mast. my QTH is suburban, not terrible noise floor but not great either. wondering if anyone has actually done a side by side comparison or has strong feelings one way or the other for 40m specifically. not really interested in a loaded vertical, would rather do it right if im going that route.

so i finally worked up the nerve to check into the local 2m net last night, ive been licensed for about 4 months and mostly just listen but the net control seemed friendly so i figured why not. anyway i checked in fine, gave my callsign and all that, but then when net control asked if anyone had traffic or announcements i jumped in without waiting for him to actually call on me and i guess i stepped on somebody else who was already responding. the net control was really nice about it and just said something like "one at a time please" but i could tell i messed up and i felt pretty bad about it the rest of the evening. is there like a good resource somewhere that explains how nets actually work? i sort of understand the basics but obviously not well enough. i dont want to keep being that guy who disrupts things, these people have been running this net for years and i respect that.

the math on general isnt nearly as scary as people make it sound. theres some ohms law stuff and a little bit about calculating things like resonant frequency but honestly if you just grind the question pool on HamStudy or qrz.com for a couple weeks you'll recognize the answers without even having to do the math in your head. i spent maybe 3 weeks studying like 20 minutes a night and passed no problem. the operating procedures and band plan stuff is probably the bigger thing to actually understand rather than just memorize. as for getting on HF after, that's a whole other rabbit hole. a used HF transceiver like an older Icom or Yaesu is totally doable if you watch the classifieds on QRZ or eham. antenna is really the more important part though, a simple wire dipole cut for 40 meters will get you making contacts pretty quick. dont overthink it at the start

I run our local ARES group and we coordinate with served agencies regularly. The key is that we're volunteers - no payment for our radio services, even if we're reimbursed for mileage or meals. Part 97 does allow emergency communications to broadcasters when no other means exist.